I was astounded when I saw this film. It is at the heart of the Guns and God culture. The format is that of a B Movie because it instills a sense of 'second class citizen' by being a Christian. I am quite confident the film maker could easily afford more in the way of upgrading the cinematography, but, that would defeat the sense of deprivation and mission with the audience. The comment was made to me, as the lady that invited me felt embarrassed by the 'quality' of the film and film making. She stated the film makers simply do the best they can. No lie. The film maker knows the audience all too well and patronizes and enforces their feeling of victimization by outside forces.
These are church folks. Nice people. Good citizens. One is a very good friend and the others close enough to be worried about them.
This movie institutionalizes racial stereotypes and the ultimate hero is hard work at the generous generational hand of "Old White Men."
The movie was called a tear jerker. A grown man in the room wept while in the arms of his wife. This theme strikes at the very heart of the masculinity it captures of this culture within a segment of the Christian faith.
The opening scene is dramatic to introduce the black man as a dedicated father. But, when the scene opened to a car robbery by another black man, the women who sponsored the film in her home for the evening stopped it immediately and started to apologize for the violence as she thought this was a family film. There is very little blood and guts, with marginal violence in the film. So, the opening trauma needed to be thought through before continuing. There were young children and teens in the room. They were all allowed to watch it eventually.
All the violent criminals in the film are black men by the way. Not all the black men in the film are criminals. One white collar criminal was a white man, a police officer.
No one wants to dismiss the tragic death of a young girl, but, the 'family movie' speaks eons to the problems facing Americans with the Religious Right's depth of fear of 'losing their religion.'
I was told if I really appreciated this film, I should see one entitled "The Fifth Quarter," about a girl killed in an auto accident and being maintained on a ventilator. She was in the car with four (quarters) young people and evidently she was the 'fifth quarter' and was not suppose to be in their company. I haven't seen that film yet. These people love to use girls to build movies on, evidently.
There are some Promise Keeper Moments as well.
In my opinion, it is an attack on the psyche of people believing to be only in the keeping of God's Graces. I sincerely believe it has an Anti-American theme at its heart and one that instills uncertainty about the future, even in the good ole' USA.
Bush's "Cult-ure of Fear" lives.
For the record, the couples use contraception and there are three children per family at the gathering. They keep mainly to (caucasian) family. As a matter of fact, one couple are second cousins (good looking people, too). No lie. I cannot honestly say they have any friends of other ethnicity. I don't believe they do. Probably the only contact with ethnicity the adults have is at work. I'm trying to remember if their neighborhood is mostly segregated and I would have to say yes. As often as I have been to visit, which is about six times a year, I don't recall any other people in the neighborhood other than caucasians. I also don't recall neighbors being invited to their home. I don't remember them talking about their neighbors, actually. They talk about their family and church. The children are friendly and very talented by the way. They like music. They do well in school, public school, fairly certain of that. I am an outside and one of the few involved with them, I think. The family is not really group think either, some actually agree with my point of view. Practice is an entirely different story.
